The Girl From His Town

by Marie Van Vorst

  CHAPTER XV--GALOREY GIVES ADVICE

  Lord Galorey had long been used to seeing things go the way they wouldand should not, and his greatest effort had been attained on the day hegave his languid body the trouble to go in and see Ruggles.

  "My God," he muttered as he watched Dan and the duchess on the terracetogether--they were nevertheless undeniably a handsome pair--"to thinkthat this is the way I am returning old Blair's hospitality!" And he wasashamed to recall his western experiences, when in a shack in themountains he had watched the big stars come out in the heavens and satlate with old Dan Blair, delighted with the simple philosophies and theman's high ideals.

  "What the devil does it all mean?" he wondered. "She has simply seducedhim, that's all."

  He got Dan finally to himself and without any preparation began, pushingDan back into a big leather chair, and standing up like a judge overhim:

  "Now, you really must listen to me, my dear chap. I shan't rest in mygrave unless I get a word with you. Your father sent you here to me andI'm damned if I know what for. I've been wondering every day about itfor two months. He didn't know what this set was like or how rotten itis."

  "What set?" The boy looked appallingly young as Gordon stared down athim. There wasn't a line or wrinkle on his smooth brow or on his lipsand forehead finely cut and well molded--but there were the very seals ofwhat his father would have been glad to see. The boy had the same clearlook and unspoiled frankness that had charmed Galorey at the first. Hehad been a lazy coward to delay so long.

  "Why, the rottenness of this set right here in my house." And as thehost began to see that he should have to approach a woman's name inspeaking, he stopped short, his mouth wide open, and Dan thought he hadbeen drinking.

  "You are talking of marrying Lily," Gordon got out.

  "I am _going_ to marry her."

  "You mustn't."

  Blair got up out of his chair. It didn't need this attack of Galorey'sto bring to his mind hints that had been dropped that Galorey was inlove with the Duchess of Breakwater. It illuminated what Galorey wassaying fast and incoherently.

  "I mean to say, my dear chap, that you mustn't marry the Duchess ofBreakwater. Look at most of these European marriages. They all go tosmash. She is older than you are and she has lived her life. You aremuch too young."

  "Hold up, Galorey; you mustn't go on, you know. You know I am engaged;that's all there is about it. Now, let's go and have a game of pool."

  Galorey had not worked himself up to this pitch to break off now at afatal point.

  "I'm responsible for this, and by gad, Dan, I'm going to put you on yourguard."

  "You are responsible for nothing, Galorey, and I warn you to drop it."

  "You would listen to your father if he were here, wouldn't you?"

  "I don't know," said the boy slowly. Then followed up with an honest,"Yes, I would."

  Gordon caught eagerly, "Well, he sent you to me. Your friend Ruggles hasgone off and washed his hands of you, but I can't."

  Lord Galorey walked across the room briskly and came back to Dan. "Firstof all, you are not in love with Lily--not a bit of it. You couldn'tbe--and what's more she is not in love with you."

  Blair laughed coolly. "You certainly have got things down to a finepoint, Gordon. I'll be hanged if I understand your game."

  Galorey went bravely on: "Therefore, if neither of you are in love, youunderstand that there is nothing between you but your money."

  The Englishman got his point out brutally, relieved that the impersonalthing money opened a way for him. He didn't want to be the bounder andthe cad that the mention of the woman would have made him.

  The boy drew in an angry breath. "Gosh," he said, "that cursed moneywill make me crazy yet! You are not very flattering to me, Gordon, Iswear, and Lily wouldn't thank you for the motives you impute to her."

  "Oh, rot!" returned Gordon more tranquilly. "She hasn't got a humansentiment in her. She's a rock with a woman's face."

  Dan turned his back on his host and walked off into the billiard-room.Galorey promptly followed him, took down a cue and chalked it, and said:

  "Well, come now; let's put it to the test." Blair began stacking theballs.

  "How do you mean?"

  "Well, when you have had time to get your first news over from Ruggles,tell her you have gone to smash and that you are a pauper."

  "I don't play tricks like that," said the Westerner quietly.

  "No," responded Galorey bitterly, "you let others play tricks on you."

  The young man threw his cue smartly down, his youth lookedcontemptuously at the worldly man, and he turned pale, but he said in alow voice:

  "Now, you've got to let up on this, Gordon; I thought at first you hadbeen drinking. I won't listen. Let's get on another subject, or I'llclear out."

  Galorey, however, cool and pitiful of the tangle in the boy's affairs,wouldn't let himself be angry. "You are my old chum's boy, Dan," he wenton, "and I'm not going to stand by and see you spoil your life insilence. You are of age. You can go to the devil if you like, but youcan't go there under my roof, without a word from me."

  "Then I'll get out from under your roof, to-night."

  "Right! I don't blame you there, but, before you go, tell Lily you havelost your money, and see what she is made of. My dear chap"--he changedhis tone to one of affection--"don't be an ape; listen to me, for yourfather's sake; remember your whole life's happiness is in this game.Isn't it worth looking after?"

  "Not at the risk of hurting a woman's feelings," said the boy.

  "How can it hurt her, my dear man, to tell her you are poor?"

  "It's a lie. I'm not up to lying to her; I don't care to. And you meanto think that if I told her I was busted she would throw me over?"

  "Like a shot, my green young friend--like a shot."

  "You haven't a very good opinion of women," Blair threw out with as neara sneer as his fine young face could express.

  "No, not very," agreed the pool player, who had continued his shots withmore or less sangfroid. When Galorey had run off his string of balls hesaid, looking up from the table: "But I've got a very good opinion ofthat 'nice girl' you told me of when you first came, and I wish toHeaven she had kept you in the States."

  This caught the boy's attention as nothing else had. "There never wasany such girl," he said slowly; "there never has been anywhere; I ratherguess they don't grow. You have made me a cad in listening to you,Gordon, but as to playing any of those comedy tricks you suggest, theyare not in my line. If she is marrying me for my money, why, she'll getit."

  "You're a coward," said Galorey, "like the rest of American husbands--allideal and no common sense. You want to make a mess of your life. Youhaven't the grit to get out of a bad job."

  He spurred himself on and his weak face grew strong as he felt he wascompelling the boy's attention. "If you only had half the character yourfather had, you wouldn't make a mistake like this; you wouldn't runblind into such a deal as this."

  Blair was impressed by his host. Galorey was so deadly in earnest and sohonest, and, as Dan's face grew set and hardened, his companion prayedfor wisdom. "If I can only win through this without touching Lily hard,"he thought, and as he waited, Blair said:

  "You haven't hesitated to call me names, Gordon. You're not my build ormy age, and I can't thrash you."

  And his host said cheerfully: "Oh, yes, you can; come on and try," and,metaphorically speaking, Dan struck his first blow:

  "They say--people have said to me--that you once cared for Lily yourself."

  The Englishman's heavy eyelids did not flicker. "It's quite true."

  Taken back by this frank response, Blair stammered: "Well, I guess thatexplains everything. It's not surprising that you should feel as you do.If you are jealous, I can forgive it a little bit, but it is low down tocall a woman a fortune hunter."

  Now Gordon Galorey's face changed and grew slightly white. "Don't makeme angry, my dear chap," he said in a low tone; "I have said w
hat Iwanted to say. Now, go to the devil if you like and as soon as youlike."

  And the boy said hotly, stammering in his excitement:

  "Not yet--not yet--not before I tell you what I think."

  Gordon, with wonderful control of his own anger, met the boy's eyes, andsaid with great patience:

  "No, don't, Dan; don't go on. There are many things in this affair thatwe can't touch upon. Let it drop. The right woman would make a rippingman of you, but you oughtn't to marry for ten years."

  Dan took the hand which Galorey put out to him, and the Englishman saidwarmly: "My dear chap, I hope it will all come out right, from myheart."

  Dan, who had regained his balance, said to his friend:

  "I've been very angry at what you said, but you're the chap my fathersent me to. There must be something back of this, and I'm going to findout what it is, and I'm going to take my own way to find out. I wouldn'tgive a rap for anything that came to me through a trick or a lie, and Iwouldn't know how to go to her with a cock-and-bull story. I shall actas I feel and go ahead being just as I am, and perhaps she won't want meafter all, even if I have got the rocks!"

  And Galorey said heartily: "I wish there was a chance of it."

  When, later, Gordon thought of Dan it was with a glow. "What a chip ofthe old block he is," he said; "what a good bit of character, even attwenty-two years." He was divided between feeling that he had made amess of things between Dan and himself, and feeling sure that some ofhis advice had gone home. After a moment's silence, Dan Blair's sonsaid: "I'm going up to London to-morrow."

  "For long?"

  "Don't know."

  Then returning with boyish simplicity to their subject, which Galoreythought had been dropped, Dan said:

  "There may be something true in what you say, Gordon. Perhaps she doeswant my money. I'm not a titled man and I'll never be known for anythingexcept my income. At any rate I was rich when I asked her to marry me,and I'm going to fix up that old place of hers, and I'm glad I've gotthe coin to do it."

  When, later, for they had been interrupted in their conversation by theentrance of the lady herself, Gordon, as Ruggles had done, mentallythought of the flowing tide of life, and how it flowed over what hehimself had called "rotten ground." Perhaps old Blair was right, hemused, after all. What does it matter if the source is pure at the headwater? It's awfully hard to force it at the start, at least.